I've had a thing for the Gran Course for a while. I've seen these frames badged as Carlton, Raleigh and Triumph. I've also seen them with different seat stay treatments. I rode a Raleigh Gran Course for a little while and sold it back to its original owner because he couldn't bear to be without it. I got another a few months later. I've seen folks refer to them as "competition 12" as well. I'm not sure if that's the same exact thing or not but this particular example is badged as a Triumph Gran Course.

Its 531cs and came to me with a mid-80's Dura-Ace Headset, BB and Crankset and some sweet Campagnolo high flange hubs laced to Mavic tubulars. Its seen its share of dirt and neglect and I haven't cleaned it up a ton just yet but that will come (that's what she said)

I rode this with 700x25's for a while with a corncob and that Dura Ace crankset but I need more range for getting around northern Vermont and also I'm a wimp, so I decided to move the setup of my Austro Daimler SLE over to this frame set.

Yep. Fatties on a race bike. As you might imagine on such a fine race bred machine chubby 650bees are not gonna happen without some persuasion. In my case the persuasion was applied in the form of an old steel seatpin and a big effin hammer. I dimpled the chainstays and came up with the clearance I needed. Some of you may hate this. I accept that and remind you that its too late now and I don't care.

Everything else moved over without the assistance of a hammer.
I took it for a lil shakedown cruise on a 60/40 mix of dirt and paved roads (60% dirt) and with the Pacentis floating along at 65 psi and my 9 speed Dura Ace clicking away I was in Eden. Actually that's the name of the town, Eden Vermont. Its nice. I rode over Elmore Mountain rd.

Yeah I know and I broke rule #2 also, I rode it further than the end of my block.

I'm sorry, I mean to say that I traded a jar of homemade pickles for the Gran Course straight up and then called the previous owner a day later and told him not to forget to return me the jar.

That said I did get a nice price on the PariMotos. 56 box a piece from a place called WesternBikeWorks.com that google shopping told me had the lowest price.

I saw rhm dimple the stays on a beater and gain some nice tire clearance so you can blame him for my wicked ways…also Dickie Sachs does something similar with old Competitions and I kinda like that. I read enough posts by him saying that this likely wouldn't do any harm to my frame or make it ride worse or be more prone to failure….so what the hey, its only a bike.

Admittedly this build was thrown together in terms of Aesthetics and I'm open to suggestions. The drivetrain parts were well planned for but ya know, mismatched cable housing between the brakes and shifters, grease all over the re-used bar wrap, low end Dia-Compe levers with ill fitting hoods…and it might look better with a black saddle. This thing literally came together in about two hours and immediately went out for a ride. Now that I know its got potential I'll spiff it up a bit, but at this point it's got the ride feel that i've been chasing and the weight seems really low (no scale, sorry) so I'm pleased as punch